Iron Bow Technologies LLC, an information technology solutions provider, announced today that it has been awarded the Marine Corps Common Hardware Suite (MCHS) End User Devices contract by the United States Navy. This Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract enables the United States Marine Corps to purchase commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) computers, servers and other advanced IT products.

The contract has an estimated value of $775 million with a three year base period of performance with the option to be extended for an additional two years. The MCHS End User Devices contract provides the Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) with a vehicle to purchase COTS ruggedized and non-ruggedized desktops and laptops, servers and other computer equipment and accessories.

“Iron Bow’s extensive history of delivering innovative information technology solutions to defense agencies has been integral to our company’s success in securing multiple ID/IQ contracts with the military services this year,” said Rene LaVigne, President and CEO of Iron Bow. “The MCHS End User Devices contract will enable Iron Bow to provide computers and other endpoints necessary for the Navy to fulfill its mission both in the field and at home.”

The MCHS End User Devices contract is the second ID/IQ defense contract awarded to Iron Bow since the beginning of 2012. Earlier this year, the Air Force awarded Iron Bow the Network Centric Solutions-2 (NETCENTS-2) Products contract; and the Army extended Iron Bow’s Information Technology Enterprise Solutions — 2 Hardware (ITES-2H) contract to August 2013.

By awarding these contracts to Iron Bow, the military services have chosen a partner that delivers innovation, world-class expertise and mission assurance. Iron Bow is one of the few small businesses to offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and services from an unparalleled team of technology partners, along with resources such as skilled technical support, best-in-class customer service and real-time program management.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-navy-awards-marine-corps-common-hardware-suite-end-user-devices-contract-to-iron-bow-2012-05-22

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer VIA has announced a new product called the Android PC System (APC), a seven-inch ARM board that ships with a custom version of the Android mobile operating system. The device will be available in July for $49.

The APC includes a VIA ARM11 SoC, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, VGA and HDMI video outputs, speaker and microphone jacks, a microSD slot, an ethernet port, and four USB ports. It also reportedly supports hardware-accelerated video decoding. According to VIA, the board consumes only 4 watts when idle and 13.5 watts under maximum load.

The Raspberry Pi foundation’s $35 computer, which launched earlier this year, attracted considerable interest from Linux hobbyists and embedded computing enthusiasts. The foundation partnered with two manufacturers, but has struggled to meet demand for the product. VIA could help fill the unmet demand for a low-cost ARM system that is suitable for the hobbyist market.

VIA’s computer will ship as a bare board without a case. The board, which measures 7 inches by 3.5 inches, is described by VIA as conforming with the new “Neo-ITX” form factor. The included software environment is based on Android 2.3, but has been tailored to work better with keyboard and mouse input devices. The APC has more USB ports and twice as much RAM as the $35 Raspberry Pi. By way of comparison, the tiny $74 Android computer that surfaced last week has a higher-end Cortex-A8 CPU, a WiFi antenna, and Android 4.0.

The market for low-cost Linux systems is becoming increasingly diverse, with offerings at several different price points and form factors. This is a win for enthusiasts who have more choices to pick from for their hobby projects.

Source:http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/05/another-tiny-computer-vias-49-apc-offers-android-hdmi-video-out/

Vizio is no stranger to defying the odds.

Consumers don’t have to wait long to see Vizio launch what could be one of the biggest disruptions to the computer business in years. The Irvine, Calif.-based company, located in an area between Los Angeles and San Diego, down the road from a Christmas tree farm, plans next month to launch a line of computers. It will sell two ulta-thin notebooks, a laptop and two desktop computers that feature high-style design. And leveraging its household name in millions of living rooms, its computers will be designed to be easy to set up and get going right out of the box.

The pitch is simple: Vizio aims to give consumers computers a fit and finish that rivals Apple’s Macintosh, yet running the familiar Microsoft Windows software that powers 90% of the world’s computers. Vizio plans to pull this off with a lineup of stylish computers in carefully machined aluminum bodies carved by robots. And as it did with its flat-screen TVs, it will do so at competitive prices.

“PCs have become a sea of black plastic,” says Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matt McRae, describing the lineup of Windows-based computers from other manufacturers, many of which focus on corporate customers where design is an afterthought. “We’re building a product people want.”

Vizio gets input from suppliers

In the process, Vizio has torn up the playbook on how PCs are designed and marketed. It is pioneering a sort of casual joint venture, which gives makers of parts that go inside the computers great say in how the system is designed.

Vizio is taking the role of a general contractor, overseeing the big-picture but relying on partners for technical help. The computers’ innards are optimized with suggestions from Microsoft and Intel, the companies that know the key components best and spend billions annually on research and development. Vizio has just a few hundred employees, and a small staff of engineers.

“Vizio is doing a good job listening and taking advice from the experiences on how to optimize hardware and software,” says Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of Microsoft’s OEM division, adding that Microsoft is willing to provide technical assistance to any of its partners.

Intel collaborates with all the PC makers that use its chips. But Vizio contacted the computer chipmaker very early in the process and “wanted to learn all we had to teach them,” says Intel’s Gary Richman, director of marketing for the PC client solution division that cooks up innovated designs that use the company’s chips.

That leaves Vizio to focus on the consumer experience, making sure the PC looks and works the way it should, right from the get-go. As evidence of its commitment to consumers over profit, it’s forsaking the industry’s long practice of loading new computers with “crapware” software, which they’re paid to install, but that many times hurt the performance of the computers.

The company also plans to “in source” all the technical support. If consumers call with questions, they will talk to a trained professional at Vizio’s consumer service center in Dakota Dunes, S.D. — not a call center in India or the Philippines.

Plane crash lends perspective
It might be tempting to scoff at Vizio. After all, the privately owned company has just 409 employees. Vizio was co-founded in 2002 by William Wang, now 48, an entrepreneur who created a number of companies, including several computer monitor businesses in the 1990s, among them a company called Princeton Graphics. Later, in 2001, Wang worked with Gateway, a former customer and a popular computer seller in the 1990s, to sell big-screen TVs in the retail stores operated by the computer maker. Wang and 95 others famously survived the crash of a 747 airplane taking off for a flight across the Pacific Ocean. Eighty-three people died in the crash, an experience, he said in an e-mailed response, that has helped him keep the pressure of life in perspective.

“Prior to the crash I worried about business issues every day. The crash allowed me to see the world from a different perspective, eliminating the fear that often limits innovation,” he said in the e-mail. Getting into the PC business is just the latest way Wang hopes to push innovation. “We are entering the PC market because I know consumers want a high-quality and beautifully designed personal computer that is affordable,” he says. “We asked the question, ‘Why can’t we deliver smart industrial design and performance without a price premium?’ ”

But even with its rapid success in TVs, how can it have a chance taking on Hewlett-Packard, Dell and of course Apple, which has grown to become the most valuable U.S. company and is sitting on almost $100 billion in cash and investments?

Making things even more tricky for Vizio is the fact the market for laptops has been stagnant, and as more consumers look to tablets as their go-to devices for e-mail and Web browsing. Vizio also must deal with the fact Apple might encroach on its turf, too. Apple is widely expected to release some sort of TV set, although no details are known.

Vizio is used to taking on difficult tasks, though. When it entered the TV business, the segment was considered to be crowded and mature. But while there were many TVs and TV makers, it turned out that there was a way to do it for less, while maintaining quality.

Consumers’ positive association with Vizio’s TVs and the company’s relationships with big retailers such as Costco and Wal-Mart will certainly give it a fighting chance, says James Kelleher of Argus Research.
Vizio has work cut out for it

There’s no shortage of critics, though. “It’s crazy talk, as far as them competing with Apple,” says James Ragan of Crowell Weedon. Initially, the company might make inroads against Dell and HP in the consumer market, but Vizio still doesn’t have a strong answer to Apple’s iPad tablet computer, which is where the industry’s growth is, he says. “It’s going to be tough for them,” he says.

Not to mention that Apple is successfully locking consumers into a network of devices that starts with them buying a smartphone but branches into other devices and purchases from Apple’s online market for music. Vizio is “not just up against the Apple brand, it’s up against an ecosystem,” says William Choi of Janney Montgomery Scott.

The idea that Vizio could challenge Apple is “ridiculous,” says Andy Hargreaves, analyst at Pacific Crest, who responded to USA TODAY via e-mail. “Unlike the TV market at the time Vizio entered, the PC market is already entirely outsourced and Apple has advantages on component purchasing,” he writes. “Vizio has as much chance as I do in being more cost-efficient than Apple in its production.”

But Vizio’s McRae says the company has heard similar criticism before. Giving consumers what they want, they will be successful. “We have the view of what consumers want,” he says. “We’ve built a different product on an open ecosystem.”

Source:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2012-05-22/vizio-takes-on-apple-computers/55143066/1

Some of Aaron Sarnacki’s computer service clients have been with him 10 years. Not only is such customer loyalty unusual in the rapidly changing industry, but even more remarkable is that Sarnacki is just 23.

A 2006 graduate of Searsport District High School, where he was valedictorian, and a 2010 graduate of the University of Maine, Sarnacki planned a career as a physician. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in pre-med.

But a funny thing happened on the way to medical school — his part-time business, Archangel Computers, grew to the point that he was ready to open storefronts in both Belfast and Camden. The Belfast location, on upper Main Street near Weaver’s Bakery, opened for business earlier this month. The Camden store, on Elm Street at the corner of Washington Street, will open next month.

On Monday afternoon, Sarnacki fielded a question from one customer about installing a wireless printer. A few minutes later, another customer asked about Web design help. A third started perusing the Apple laptops he has for sale, displayed on a counter.

“We can pretty much do anything,” Sarnacki said, including repairing computers that have suffered hardware or software failures, removing viruses, installing software, networking computers for businesses and providing IT support on an on-call basis.

After working out of his family’s home in Searsport, Sarnacki last summer set up shop in a building across from City Hall on Church Street. Business was good enough that he was ready to take the storefront plunge.

“We support hundreds of businesses in the area,” he said.

Many of Archangel’s clients are physician offices; Sarnacki and his two full-time employees help them set up electronic medical records. Some area public libraries have outsourced their IT work to Archangel. He also works with high-end digital photographers and computer-assisted designers.

So how does a young man grow a business so effectively?

“It’s just word of mouth,” Sarnacki said. “Once we get a customer, we don’t lose them.”

Archangel repairs both PCs and Apples and sells new and refurbished Apples and Dell PCs, as well as accessories and parts, even really hard-to-find stuff, Sarnacki said. Gesturing to the various Apples displayed on the two counters that line the Belfast store, he said, “We’re the only place in the midcoast where you can find this stuff north of Portland.”

Sarnacki renovated the Main Street storefront in a clean, hip style: unpainted steel ceiling panels in the 1890s fashion, dark-stained composite floor and art lights, all in a minimalist setting. The repair work is done in the back.

Source:http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/22/business/computer-service-opens-in-belfast-camden/?ref=latest

Ars Technica and others report on a cool miniature Android computer that can plug directly into your TV. The whole thing is housed in a 3.5-inch plastic case, weighs in at 200 grams, and measures roughly the size of a USB thumb drive (a tiny bit bigger, actually.) It’s being sold by Chinese retailers, and you can get yourself one online for the low price of $74 (or 5% off, if you order 5 or more).

Some specs for you (get ready for some alphabet soup): an HDMI port that plugs into your TV (1080p), 512MB of RAM, a 4GB Flash drive (plus a micoSD slot that can bump you up to 32GB). For connectivity, there’s WiFi 802.11b/g. It runs Android 4.0 (ICS), and for a keyboard, you can use Android virtual keyboard or 2.4G wireless keyboard plus a fly mouse. The device has a AllWinner A10 single-core 1.5GHz ARM CPU, as well as a Mali 400 GPU. Need more specs? I doubt it, but if so, this site has tabulated them all.

A cheap, mini computer–does this sound a bit familiar? I’ve reported in the past on Raspberry Pi, the $35 mini-computer. After a lot of windup, the Raspberry Pi has finally made it out into the field, with its creator saying that 200,000 units should be out there by the end of June. Engadget just caught up with Eben Upton at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, and shot a video of the encounter.

In addition to the much-hyped Raspberry Pi, the new Android computer will compete with the FXI “Cotton Candy,” another USB-sized offering. The Cotton Candy is expected to cost a bit more, $199 plus tax and shipping. The price difference is largely accounted for by the fact that it has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, with 1GB of RAM.

Why exactly would you buy one of these mini-computers, given their limited capability? Their intention is eventually to get a new generation interested in coding, hardware, and what makes a computer tick. In an era when most of us view the smart phones in our pockets as working a kind of quasi-divine magic, devices like these three mini-computers, with their rough (metaphorical) edges, inspire a fascination with the nuts and bolts of computing. “The Raspberry Pi has the potential to be whatever you want it to be, just like a pile of Lego blocks,” says Adam Turner in a thought-provoking piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.

That piece is titled, ominously, “Is the Raspberry Pi lost on the iGeneration?” Let’s hope the answer is no.

Source:http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27867/

End of May will see personal computers — notebook, netbooks and desktops — getting expensive by almost 10 per cent.

Weakening rupee against dollar is leading major personal computer manufacturers in India to increase prices of their products.

Companies such as Acer India, Hewlett Packard (HP) India and Dell India are facing the reality of rupee depreciation, which they think would continue at this level of Rs 54-56 against the dollar for at least next few months.

The players felt information technology hardware market’s margin is already driven by various factors such as excise duty and input costs. If forex movements also come into play at steep level since beginning this month, it would have to be passed on to the customers.

“We are looking at 8-10 per cent of price increase, depending on the products category, by end of this month,” Mr Vinay Awasthi, Senior Director — Product and Marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP India, told Business Line.

However, 8-10 per cent might be more than what has been earlier for the industry level of around 5-7 per cent.

“But, rupee has been depreciating against the dollar from Rs 45-47 few months back to what is now, and that is the reality,” Mr S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, said.

Therefore, by and large, the increase in products cost will happen before end of this month, though demand from consumers are not yet down, he said.

Dell India said it was too early to be able to determine specific price increases, but it would happen for sure. “Since most of the components are imported, it is reasonable to assume that with dollar appreciation, rupee prices will increase by similar amounts,” Mr Mahesh Bhalla, Executive Director and General Manager — Consumer and Small and Medium Business, Dell India, said.

“This is a catch-22 situation because of rupee devaluation. Under the current situation if the prices are not increased it will adversely affect the companies expansion plans and further investment,” Mr Alok Bhardwaj, President, Manufacturers Association for IT India, said.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article3443038.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy

Computer Hardware: Global Industry Almanac is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the Computer Hardware industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, textual analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, and profiles of the leading companies. This incisive report provides expert analysis on a global, regional and country basis.
Scope of the Report
- Contains an executive summary and data on value, volume and segmentation
- Provides textual analysis of the industry’s prospects, competitive landscape and profiles of the leading companies
- Incorporates in-depth five forces competitive environment analysis and scorecards
- Covers the Global, European and Asia-Pacific markets as well as individual chapters on Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.
- Includes a five-year forecast of the industry
Highlights
The global computer hardware market grew by 6.8% in 2011 to reach a value of $176,167.2 million.
In 2016, the global computer hardware market is forecast to have a value of $225,147.1 million, an increase of 27.8% since 2011.
Computers is the largest segment of the global computer hardware market, accounting for 53.2% of the market’s total value.
Americas accounts for 50.8% of the global computer hardware market value.
Why you should buy this report
- Spot future trends and developments
- Inform your business decisions
- Add weight to presentations and marketing materials
- Save time carrying out entry-level research

Source:http://www.sys-con.com/node/2281771

Whether there’s a dad or a grad (or both!) on your gift list, a sexy new computer is always a really cool gift idea.

The HP Pavilion dv6-6c35dx laptop with AMD VISION technology delivers style plus substance making it the perfect gift for any dad who wants a premium notebook for stylish mobility — and that’s anyone who wants to escape from the apartment and take their laptop with them!

The Dv6 features a 15.6″ high-definition display for crisp, clear images with excellent visual quality and HD video is crystal clear through dedicated video playback technology powered by AMD. It includes Wireless Beats Audio for optimal sound experience when playing audio through headphones or external speakers, and supercomputing-like speed brings a blistering performance without the bulkiness. HP CoolSense Technology combines advanced hardware and intelligent cooling software for a noticeably cooler notebook. Its s design includes extras like a fourth USB port and second headphone jack, along with a longer lasting battery (something that those of us who travel all the time super-value!)

And, like some of our other dad/grad gift finds, we’re giving one away!

Source:http://mygloss.com/giveaways/giveaway-amd-powered-hp-dv6-laptop-computer/

Account holders complained that they were left embarrassed after being unable to pay for goods and services and demanded compensation.

The managing director of a theatre production company said his business appeared to miss out on thousands of pounds worth of internet sales because of the problem.
Last night the bank responded to complaints on its official Twitter feed by saying it was “really sorry” about the problems.

Later it said: “Our ATMs should be back up now. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Among those complaining was a London-based customer who wrote: “I have just tried to pay for dinner, I can’t. Ran to a cash machine won’t give me any cash. Thanks HSBC.”

Later he added: “Closing my account tomorrow. Disgrace and humiliating to say the least.”
Another customer, in the East Midlands, tweeted: “I felt like a right prat when I couldn’t pay for petrol. I had to wait for someone to come and lend me some money to pay for it!”

Andrew Collier, managing director of Minor Entertainment, a children’s theatre production company, complained that online sales for a production of In The Night Garden Live at the O2 appear to have been affected.

He said that for a period between around 5pm and 9pm when he would have expected to be taking around 150 orders of about four tickets each – with tickets priced from £10 to £25 – only a “handful went through”.

Mr Collier said customers had been calling the show’s call centre to report problems and that they were not given a reason when payments did not go through.
He said: “You are in a position where your customers are trying to make an order and it fails and they don’t know why. I am sure that we will have lost out.
“The show opens this week and we have had a lot of marketing this weekend. The show is for children and our busy period is after the children have gone to bed, eight or nine.

“Whenever a customer makes a mistake, the bank is very quick to charge them. I hope that we will see the bank making some compensatory gesture to all customers affected – however I doubt they will, so I think I will be looking to move bank.

“It’s incredibly frustrating and there are multiple failures. There is the failure of the system in the first place, the failure to get it back up quickly, and the failure to communicate with their customers.

“We only fully understood what the problem was by looking at customer complaints on social networking sites.”

HSBC said the problems had been the result of a “hardware failure” in the UK.

It appeared that over a two-hour period HSBC customers using some non-HSBC machines had been unable to withdraw cash.

For a slightly longer period, some had also been unable to carry out card transactions but for most, a back-up system meant they went through, the bank said.
Last night a spokesman for HSBC said: “For a short period of time this evening, an IT hardware failure which supported some ATM and debit card transactions meant that a small minority of HSBC customers were unable to withdraw cash or pay for goods.

“We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to customers, we have worked as quickly as possible to restore our service and both are now available again.”

Last November, another computer crash saw millions of HSBC customers lose access to their money as internet accounts, cash points and debit cards stopped working.
A previous outage took place in 2006 when a “server issue” meant computers were failing to verify the identity of card users.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9278841/HSBC-customers-hit-by-computer-glitch.html

Enthusiasts of embedded computing seem to be spoilt for choices nowadays.

A Chinese-made computer, that’s slightly larger than a typical thumbdrive, can now be bought online for just US$74. The fee includes free shipping to a number of Asian countries such as Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

The MK802 is similar to the Cotton Candy computer-in-a-stick. Both are powered by ARM processors and support Android or other ARM-compatible Linux operating systems. It comes with a Mali 400 GPU that enables it to output 1080p videos through HDMI.

Despite its small size (it weighs just under 200g), the MK802 has a microSD card slot to add to its built-in 4GB flash storage, together with a full-sized USB port and a micro-USB version. Wi-Fi is also supported.

The more expensive US$199 Cotton Candy does have better hardware, including a dual-core ARM chip compared with the single-core version on the MK802. The Cotton Candy can also be plugged directly into a HDMI port–the MK802 requires an HDMI cable.

The low cost of ARM processors coupled with the popularity of Android appear to have led to more embedded computing solutions for hobbyists. The US$35 Raspberry Pi is another inexpensive mini computer that seems to be popular among enthusiasts for tasks like programming and video streaming. These devices could also serve as educational tools for children in less developed countries, especially when installed with the right applications.

Source:http://asia.cnet.com/android-mini-computer-selling-for-just-us74-62215414.htm

Hardware and software provided by foreign suppliers, particularly those suppliers with strong government connections, have the potential to compromise the security of Canada’s telecommunication systems and leave them vulnerable to attack, computer experts warn.

“If you buy equipment or software that’s essentially produced by the government of another country, then you have no control over what that software or hardware might be doing that you can’t see,” said Prof. David Skillicorn at the school of computing at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

“It’s the reason we don’t buy fighter planes from the Russians. If you’re running on hardware that somebody else built, and you don’t trust the somebody else, then it’s never going to do, securely, what you want it to do.”

Other experts agree that sensitive buyers need to know exactly what it is they are purchasing.

“You can hide things in software. You can hide things in hardware,” says Thomas Dean, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Queen’s.

“Hardware components can do all sorts of things. They can record things. They can transmit things. They can also be a back door for disabling” parts of a system.

In recent days, concerns have been raised over the Harper government’s decision to allow China’s Huawei Technologies to participate in large Canadian telecommunication projects with companies like Bell, Telus and WIND Mobile.

The company has been blocked by the U.S. and Australia when it attempted to participate in similar projects in those countries. Some have accused Huawei of engaging in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government, an accusation Huawei has vehemently rejected.

Although experts are concerned about the potential for tampering with telecommunications technology, there is no evidence that Huawei has engaged in this type of activity. The company released a statement May 15 saying, “all our stakeholders, including governments, have a clear understanding of the tools we use to protect the integrity of our customers’ networks to the highest standards. Over the past four years, we’ve worked openly and transparently in consultation with our customers and government to meet these requirements.”

Infrastructure
Concerns about the security of telecommunications equipment are not new. Intelligence officials have long been worried that foreign-controlled technology companies could potentially hide digital “back doors” in telecommunication networks that might steal Canadian secrets or disrupt operations.

“It means that if you buy a switch from a company it [could] take a copy of everything that passes through it and send it off to some other place,” Skillicorn said.

“It would have to be transmitted in a covert way, but that’s not all that difficult a problem if you control the whole ball game.”

Skillicorn said the problem with hardware is that it’s difficult to inspect the equipment that you’re getting because so much of it is “working down at the very, very small scale.

“So you would have to tear the chips apart and look at them in incredible detail.”

Skillicorn noted that when it comes to intelligence sharing between Canada and its allies, Ottawa would never consider using anyone else’s equipment for the top, most secure levels of communication.

However, at the next level down, governments are starting to use encrypted communication over shared channels that are basically part of the public infrastructure.

“So now you have to rely on how strong you think your encryption is rather than concealing the traffic completely from people who might be your enemies.”

“There’s always been rumours that there are encryption back doors that are known to government intelligence organizations that let them get into encrypted stuff relatively easy.”

Skillicorn warned that even if the data can’t be extracted, a hostile agent could use what’s called a kill switch to disrupt systems entirely.

“I can cut off your network completely and utterly at every level whenever I feel like it,” using such a switch, he said. “That of course would have a huge impact at every level including the military.

“They could have their switches turn themselves off on a particular date, for example. Once you have the potential, you can think up all sorts of ways to do very bad things.”

When it comes to manipulating telecommuncations systems, Dean said there is also the potential risk of modification, meaning the way in which a hidden program might change or redirect a particular communication, like an email for example, as it passes through the network.

“It’s not unthinkable to talk about something that could actually modify traffic. That’s a little bit more remote of a threat, but it’s certainly not unreasonable.”

Source:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/05/16/f-huawei-security.html?cmp=googleeditorspick

Mobile technology and computer hardware will be the core investment priorities for businesses in the next 12 to 14 months, according to software vendor, Sage.

More than half of all businesses (53 per cent) stated say they will invest in mobile technology, with investment in computer hardware following as the second most popular priority at 52 per cent.

The company reported the findings in its Sage Business Index Report 2012, a market research program that interviewed 503 business owners and decision makers across Australia. Market research company, the Insight Room, conducted the survey.

“During these uncertain economic times, mobility offers a way of increasing business productivity and potentially driving down the costs of conducting business, with the added benefit of enabling flexibility for employees,” Sage Software Australia managing director, Alan Osrin, said. The study found that Cloud computing still remains an enigma to businesses, with only 53 per cent having heard of the IT term ‘Cloud’ prior to the survey. However, with the concept explained, 48 per cent of the respondents stated to be interested in utilising the Cloud in their operations.

According to Sage, the main barriers to adoption of Cloud computing include: limited perceived benefits, confusion about the potential savings or benefits, uncertainty as to how to implement a Cloud solution and a belief that their business is unable to make use of the Cloud.

The survey showed that Cloud penetration is currently limited – with only one in 12 businesses using public Cloud for their business software and one in 16 using the private Cloud. On the other hand, though penetration is low, its uptake is increasing with 57 per cent of them implementing the private Cloud and 76 per cent deploying the private Cloud in the past 12 months.

“The Cloud as sitting in the ‘important but not urgent’ box, given the multitude of other challenges they are currently facing. As long as clear education and a roadmap highlighting its risks, benefits and opportunities are provided, there is potential,” Osrin said.

The study also showed that social networking is still in its infancy, but is seen as credible business channel going forward.

54 per cent of the respondents agreed that users of Facebook and Twitter in engaging customers in the next few years will be more successful as compared to those that do not. But, 51 per cent mentioned that they did not know how to use it effectively in promoting their business. Females were the bigger advocates of social media, with 76 per cent of them fully comprehending its use versus a 49 per cent total.

The group was two times more likely to have a Facebook business page and 2.5 times more likely to have a Twitter business page in comparison to men.

However, the study found that the priorities were selected only on the basis that companies had more budgets set aside for new technologies.

It found that looming economic conditions are causing companies to defer key business decisions, with 36 per cent of all respondents deciding to put off upgrading machinery, 19 per cent suspending IT software spend, 19 per cent rescheduling IT hardware spend and 18 per cent adjourning their Web/online presence.

More investments will be made in marketing and sales instead, at the expense of Web presence and technology. Marketing and sales saw an increase in priority by nine per cent and eight per cent since last year but, focus on Web presence and technology fell by seven per cent and nine per cent respectively.

“Rising cost is the major challenge and has been increasing – from 47 per cent last year to 67 per cent this year. This is because as competitiveness tightens and growth slows, businesses are looking for more urgent and direct ways to grow sales,” The Insight Room co-founder and director, Ben Taylor, said.

Source:http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/424989/mobility_tops_business_technology_focus_2012-13_sage_/#closeme

Personal computing devices have evolved into rather slick and polished gadgets which “just work”. They aim to help us forget about what’s under the bonnet and get on with the task at hand. This is obviously a smart strategy if you want to win mainstream acceptance, but it’s easy to forget that the personal technology revolution was sparked by people with a passion for tinkering with electronics. If you’ve still got that passion for tinkering, the Raspberry Pi could be for you.

The credit card-sized Raspberry Pi is a bare-bones computer designed to run Linux from an SD card. It’s generated plenty of excitement but they’re in short supply and so far only a handful have made it to Australia. Local distributors element14 and RS Components are looking to bring in more and this week RS Components said Australians will pay around $40 locally for a Raspberry Pi. I’ve been fortunate to secure an early review unit from element14 which I’ll be putting through its paces and writing up for the paper.

As you can see from the picture above, the Raspberry Pi is stripped back to the bare essentials. The circuit board includes HDMI and composite video connectors along with two USB ports, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm audio jack, SD slot, GPIO expansion pins and a micro-USB port for power. It’s driven by an ARM 700 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM and a Videocore 4 GPU.

What you see is what you get. No case. No power supply. No SD card. Just the very core of a computer. So what do you do with it?

The designers envision it as being a cheap computer targeted at children and developing countries. The netbook revolution started out with similar goals but ended up becoming more of a first world consumer toy. It remains to be see if the Raspberry Pi will suffer the same fate.

So what would you do with the Raspberry Pi? I’m not sure how many people would want to use one as a desktop workstation considering that it’s not packing a lot of grunt, although a lab of them might make sense for schools.
I suspect the Raspberry Pi will find its place as a cheap alternative to small embedded devices, particularly if a development community grows around it and starts to build custom Linux distros designed for different tasks. For example the Raspberry Pi could make a decent home media server. Or perhaps a general Network Attached Storage device (like the NASBerry project). It could also make a decent dumb terminal client for running a Citrix session (like the Raspberrry Pi Thin Client project). The GPU offers H.264 hardware video decoding so it could make a good media player for the lounge room or perhaps the car.

Source:http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/blogs/gadgets-on-the-go/what-would-you-do-with-palmsized-computer-20120517-1ys5g.html

Finding exact solutions to some problems can be a long and arduous process for humans. Computers can find these answers much faster, but it can require extra power and circuitry. An idea many computer scientists have been thinking about is the use of inexact hardware. Researchers at Rice University, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, Switzerland’s Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, and the University of California, Berkeley have created an inexact computer chip that is many times more efficient than modern exact processors, while still being smaller and using less power.

To ensure data is processed correctly, higher voltages are used in transistors. This puts a bigger gap between a 0 and 1, so it is easier to tell them apart. Additional circuitry is also used for error correction, or dedicated to specific functions that the other circuitry can do, but potentially with errors. By pruning out the extra circuits, inexact chips can be made smaller, which means they need less power, and with confined voltage scaling, even less power is needed.

Of course you do not want too much error, because there is a point at which error makes data useless. However the researchers found that allowing a deviation of just 0.25% could cut a chips energy demands by a factor of 3.5. The die shrink and increase in speed, which the voltage change allows, increase this to a factor of 7.5. This is doubled to a factor of 15 by allowing for an 8% deviation.

Inexact computer chips may not be the thing you or I want in our computers, even with that much performance gain, but there are still places they would be welcome. The researchers are working on tablet computers for use in India schools where there is little electricity and few teachers. By pruning both the CPU and GPU the researchers expect to have the tablets require half the power they normally would, which will allow them to be powered by solar power strips similar to those on some handheld calculators.

Source:http://www.overclockersclub.com/news/31569/

HGST announced a new family of CinemaStar 2.5-inch hard disk drives for the traditional and small form factor audio/video and consumer electronics markets. The new CinemaStar family includes the CinemaStar Z7K500, CinemaStar C5K1000, and CinemaStar Z5K500 families. The CinemaStar Z7K500 family is designed for high performance A/V streaming. This one-disk, 7mm, 7200 RPM, 2.5-inch drive promises speed and power-efficiency. The CinemaStar C5K1000 family offers capacities up to 1TB in a small footprint with its 2.5-inch form factor. This 5,400 RPM drive is also available in capacities of 750GB and 640GB. Finally, the CinemaStar Z5K500 family features a one-disk design and comes in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities. This 7mm, 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch CE hard drive is quiet, making it ideal for use in a DVR. The new 2.5-inch CinemaStar family is now shipping in limited quantities.

HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company, NYSE: WDC) today announced a new family of CinemaStar™ 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) for the growing traditional and small form factor audio/video (A/V) and consumer electronics (CE) HDD markets. With continued technological advancements and increased capacities, 2.5-inch hard drives are satisfying the needs of both the traditional 3.5-inch CE market as well as the small form factor market, while allowing OEMs to design smaller, more compact A/V streaming devices.

From slim 7mm z-height 500GB HDDs to high-capacity, 2.5-inch, 9.5mm 1TB HDDs, HGST’s new CinemaStar family targets the vast majority of CE capacity needs, while providing the right balance of performance, low power and quiet acoustics for multi-stream digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top-boxes (STBs). Now in its sixth generation, each CinemaStar drive is fine-tuned with advanced streaming technology to efficiently optimize the 24/7 recording and playback of A/V content.

The new CinemaStar family includes:

CinemaStar Z7K500 Family for High Performance A/V Streaming – The CinemaStar Z7K500 family is the industry’s first one-disk, 7mm, 7200 RPM, 2.5-inch drive designed for high-performance A/V streaming. It delivers blazing speed, power-efficiency and design flexibility for uninterrupted content delivery and storage. The 7mm CinemaStar Z7K500 drive can be a direct replacement for standard 9.5mm hard drives and is well suited for slim TV integration, and high-performance multi-tuner DVRs and STBs that let you stream, record and watch programming at the same time. The CinemaStar Z7K500 family comes with a 6Gb/s SATA interface and a 32MB cache buffer, and is available in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities.
CinemaStar C5K1000 Family Delivers Massive Capacity in a Small Footprint – The new CinemaStar C5K1000 drive delivers a generous 1TB capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor, meeting the needs of a growing number of CE OEMs who wish to offer video recording and playback features in a compact design, while still offering massive capacity and functionality as seen in much larger units in households today. The new 5,400 RPM, 9.5mm, 2.5-inch CinemaStar C5K1000 family delivers read/write power as low as 1.5 watts (W) and a quiet operation at 2.4 bels idle. The drive family is available in 1TB, 750GB and 640GB capacities.
CinemaStar™ Z5K500 Family Offers Mainstream Performance and Capacity – The CinemaStar Z5K500 offering is HGST’s second-generation, 7mm, 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch CE HDD family, featuring a one-disk design with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities. With its slim 7mm HDD design, power as low as 1.4W during read/write operations and a barely audible sound at 1.9 idle bels, OEMs can easily design smaller, quieter and more power-efficient DVR solutions with enough streaming performance and capacity to store 185¹ hours of HD video or television shows.

With design wins in virtually all major markets, HGST’s CinemaStar hard drive family is the storage muscle behind A/V streaming devices today. HGST CinemaStar drives offer specialized advanced features and integrated technology for high-definition multi-stream DVRs, tuner-based STBs as well as IPTV set-top boxes, DVR-enabled TVs, audio systems and video surveillance systems.

All CinemaStar drives feature HGST’s patented and innovative SmoothStream™ technology, which enables the drives to perform efficiently and provide the best viewing experience possible. The HGST SmoothStream technology supports the industry-standard ATA-7 streaming command set, and SMART command transport (SCT) provides time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities for a longer system life. Together, the SCT protocol and HGST SmoothStream technology minimize disruptions in stream delivery by adapting buffer management behavior and error recovery timing to match the characteristics of typical streaming applications.

“Increasingly, set-top-box, DVR, and game console manufacturers are leveraging smaller 2.5-inch form factor HDDs instead of traditional 3.5-inch drives in more compact CE product designs,” said John Rydning, IDC’s HDD research vice president. “With 2.5-inch HDDs able to offer the capacity sweet spot for set top boxes and DVRs, IDC expects 2.5-inch HDD shipments into these applications will grow at a worldwide 2011-2016 compound annual growth rate of 21.8%.”²

“The ever increasing appetite for on-demand entertainment is driving the adoption of high-capacity 2.5-inch hard disk drives into a growing number of CE applications,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. “Not only is there a desire to increase the storage capacity in these devices to hold more programs, but they must deliver predictable A/V streaming performance. With our broad new family of 2.5-inch CinemaStar drives, we continue to give our customers the flexibility to select a variety of reliable and robust drives to meet their cost, performance, power or capacity requirements, while helping them to deliver smaller, more aesthetically appealing designs.”

Source:HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company, NYSE: WDC) today announced a new family of CinemaStar™ 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) for the growing traditional and small form factor audio/video (A/V) and consumer electronics (CE) HDD markets. With continued technological advancements and increased capacities, 2.5-inch hard drives are satisfying the needs of both the traditional 3.5-inch CE market as well as the small form factor market, while allowing OEMs to design smaller, more compact A/V streaming devices.

From slim 7mm z-height 500GB HDDs to high-capacity, 2.5-inch, 9.5mm 1TB HDDs, HGST’s new CinemaStar family targets the vast majority of CE capacity needs, while providing the right balance of performance, low power and quiet acoustics for multi-stream digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top-boxes (STBs). Now in its sixth generation, each CinemaStar drive is fine-tuned with advanced streaming technology to efficiently optimize the 24/7 recording and playback of A/V content.

The new CinemaStar family includes:

CinemaStar Z7K500 Family for High Performance A/V Streaming – The CinemaStar Z7K500 family is the industry’s first one-disk, 7mm, 7200 RPM, 2.5-inch drive designed for high-performance A/V streaming. It delivers blazing speed, power-efficiency and design flexibility for uninterrupted content delivery and storage. The 7mm CinemaStar Z7K500 drive can be a direct replacement for standard 9.5mm hard drives and is well suited for slim TV integration, and high-performance multi-tuner DVRs and STBs that let you stream, record and watch programming at the same time. The CinemaStar Z7K500 family comes with a 6Gb/s SATA interface and a 32MB cache buffer, and is available in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities.
CinemaStar C5K1000 Family Delivers Massive Capacity in a Small Footprint – The new CinemaStar C5K1000 drive delivers a generous 1TB capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor, meeting the needs of a growing number of CE OEMs who wish to offer video recording and playback features in a compact design, while still offering massive capacity and functionality as seen in much larger units in households today. The new 5,400 RPM, 9.5mm, 2.5-inch CinemaStar C5K1000 family delivers read/write power as low as 1.5 watts (W) and a quiet operation at 2.4 bels idle. The drive family is available in 1TB, 750GB and 640GB capacities.
CinemaStar™ Z5K500 Family Offers Mainstream Performance and Capacity – The CinemaStar Z5K500 offering is HGST’s second-generation, 7mm, 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch CE HDD family, featuring a one-disk design with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities. With its slim 7mm HDD design, power as low as 1.4W during read/write operations and a barely audible sound at 1.9 idle bels, OEMs can easily design smaller, quieter and more power-efficient DVR solutions with enough streaming performance and capacity to store 185¹ hours of HD video or television shows.

With design wins in virtually all major markets, HGST’s CinemaStar hard drive family is the storage muscle behind A/V streaming devices today. HGST CinemaStar drives offer specialized advanced features and integrated technology for high-definition multi-stream DVRs, tuner-based STBs as well as IPTV set-top boxes, DVR-enabled TVs, audio systems and video surveillance systems.

All CinemaStar drives feature HGST’s patented and innovative SmoothStream™ technology, which enables the drives to perform efficiently and provide the best viewing experience possible. The HGST SmoothStream technology supports the industry-standard ATA-7 streaming command set, and SMART command transport (SCT) provides time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities for a longer system life. Together, the SCT protocol and HGST SmoothStream technology minimize disruptions in stream delivery by adapting buffer management behavior and error recovery timing to match the characteristics of typical streaming applications.

“Increasingly, set-top-box, DVR, and game console manufacturers are leveraging smaller 2.5-inch form factor HDDs instead of traditional 3.5-inch drives in more compact CE product designs,” said John Rydning, IDC’s HDD research vice president. “With 2.5-inch HDDs able to offer the capacity sweet spot for set top boxes and DVRs, IDC expects 2.5-inch HDD shipments into these applications will grow at a worldwide 2011-2016 compound annual growth rate of 21.8%.”²

“The ever increasing appetite for on-demand entertainment is driving the adoption of high-capacity 2.5-inch hard disk drives into a growing number of CE applications,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. “Not only is there a desire to increase the storage capacity in these devices to hold more programs, but they must deliver predictable A/V streaming performance. With our broad new family of 2.5-inch CinemaStar drives, we continue to give our customers the flexibility to select a variety of reliable and robust drives to meet their cost, performance, power or capacity requirements, while helping them to deliver smaller, more aesthetically appealing designs.”

Researchers from MIT, Indiana University and Tufts University have developed “Brainput,” a system which detects when your brain is trying to multitask, then offloads some of that work to a computer. Erin Treacy Solovey led the new research in hopes of increasing productivity and focus by letting computers do some of our grunt work.

The novel idea of having computers do our dirty work isn’t a new one. After all, we did invent the calculator and computer, and without these there would be no internet and no world of knowledge one Google search away. Brainput will work in a different way, however.

The device uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the activity of your brain. The data is then analyzed to determine what you’re busy thinking about. If Brainput determines your mind is busy multitasking, its software will kick in and begin to take over some of that work for you.

To test this system, Solovey created some robots and a maze. The goal was to have someone navigate both of these robots simultaneously via remote controls through a maze while wearing the Brainput device on their head. When the software determined the person’s brain was focused on one of the robots and not the other, it would tell the ignored robot to use its sensors to pilot itself through the maze. In the end, while Brainput was being used, the operators performance was improved. What’s more, they generally didn’t notice the robots were partially moving on their own, giving the user a sense of having controlled both simultaneously with their mind.

What’s interesting, however, is that when the robots became autonomous during a time the user wasn’t multitasking, user performance decreased, meaning the user was more inclined to let the robot take over and do the work rather than do it themselves.

Similar technology exists, such as cars and steering wheels which can kick into autopilot when they realize the driver is no longer paying attention or has fallen asleep. Google, for example, has built a car which drives itself.

Using cameras, lasers and radar, the Google car can safely navigate roads all by itself, without the need for human piloting.

Brainput could be used in such applications, allowing cars to take over the driving duties if we reach down to select a CD. Using Brainput is easy as well, and the entire device is lightweight and free of a lot of hardware. The fNIRS system is mostly composed of a headband and a few wires which attach to the computer.

According to Extreme Tech Solovey intends to move the research forward and investigate what other cognitive states can be reliably detected with fNIRS.

In the end, Solovey’s research could bridge the “communication” gap between what we want our tech and computers to do and what they actually do. Such an idea sounds very cool and very helpful, but some problems involving manners and matters of politeness could easily arise should our computers instantly give way to our every immediate notion and whim.

Source:http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112536418/computer-reads-your-thoughts-does-your-multi-tasking-dirty-work/

A recently launched Kickstarter-funded project aims to bring $50 thin clients to schools and small businesses, allowing them to turn almost any computer into a multi-user hub.

Thanks to ongoing advances in multi-seat Linux development, manufacturer Plugable was able to base its machines on Fedora, rather than proprietary software, though it also works with Windows Multipoint Server. By doing away with licensing costs, Plugable founder Bernie Thompson says the company can ensure an attractive price. The Kickstarter effort is in place to help the company realize “economies of scale” necessary to drive the cost down.

“Every other solution out there has a software license cost per seat. This doesn’t,” he asserts.

OOPS: Kickstarter lapse leaves 70,000 project ideas exposed

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The device – which connects a monitor, mouse, keyboard, headphones and microphone to a parent computer via USB 2.0 – has no memory, hard drive or CPU, according to Thompson. “[The client's] behavior is purely determined by the machine it connects to,” he says.

While this does mean that each thin client is limited both by available system resources – more clients mean more resource drain – and the capabilities of USB graphics connectivity, Thompson says that the average information worker should be able to function with little trouble.

The fact that most PCs don’t use the majority of their system resources all the time, coupled with some optimization technology, helps address those performance concerns – though things like gaming and high-definition video are always going to be problematic.

Thompson is a former employee of DisplayLink, and that company’s technology is at the heart of Plugable’s products. Much of his current business involves DisplayLink hardware for use in multi-monitor setups, he says.

However, he also credits developers at Red Hat with having done a lot of the heavy lifting as far as implementing this easy-to-use client technology. That said, some of the Kickstarter funding will go toward ironing out bugs in Fedora that could complicate his device’s use.

Schools and non-profits are expected to be among the most enthusiastic customers for the device, Thompson says, along with anyone else who needs “lots of machines for the minimum possible cost and the minimum possible maintenance.”

Simplicity, according to Thompson, is paramount.

“If it’s not plug-and-play, it’s really not reachable by normal users,” he says.

Source:http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/424781/from_laptop_legion_-_turning_one_computer_into_many/?fp=4&fpid=1976458394#closeme

A SENIOR executive at the supermarket giant Woolworths sent a stream of inside information to particular companies to ensure they won nearly $40 million worth of computer contracts in return for $3.7 million in kickbacks, a court has heard.
He then allegedly used a complex web of companies in the British Virgin Islands to launder the proceeds and hide the money trail.
A former general manager of information services at Woolworths, David Wills, is on trial in the Downing Centre District Court on 24 charges, including fraud, money laundering and fabricating evidence to mislead a tribunal.
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On trial alongside him are Peter and Carroll Henderson, a husband and wife who ran a company that was allegedly awarded contracts as part of the alleged fraud.
In his opening address to the jury yesterday, the Crown prosecutor Sunil de Silva said the three accused were part of a conspiracy in which Mr Wills used his position to ensure contracts for computer hardware and software were won by the Hendersons’ company, Smart Repair Terminals, or a foreign company which they acted as agents for, Azben Electronics.
”Mr Wills used his position at Woolworths to influence both the awarding of contracts and the quantity of equipment,” Mr de Silva said.
Mr Wills allegedly did this through a ‘’sham procedure” whereby he would give the inside information about the tender process, such as what answers to give when Woolworths requested information.
He also allegedly lied to the Woolworths board, telling them a pilot scheme involving computer software and hardware from the two companies was functioning perfectly when this was not necessarily the case.
He allegedly breached Woolworths’s own internal protocols in carrying out the tender process to ”allow the fraud to take place”.
The court heard Woolworths lost credibility in the marketplace as a result of the alleged fraud because other companies lost confidence in its tender process.
In return for his efforts, Mr Wills allegedly received $3.7 million.
The court heard that he hid this money through a web of companies, including Crossborder Holdings, an entity based in the tax-friendly British Virgin Islands.
It was alleged the Hendersons attempted to hide and launder their money in a similar way.
The jury heard the Crown case was a circumstantial one where the evidence would take the form of many thousands of pages of documents, including 4500 pages from Woolworths alone.
The trial, before Judge Andrew Haesler, continues.

Source:http://www.smh.com.au/national/woolies-executive-fixed-40m-computer-contracts-court-told-20120516-1yrd4.html

Most computer users live in fear of a crashed computer and lost data, or are frustrated by a computer that seems to take hours to perform the simplest task. The trick is to learn from these problems and either fix the computer before the worst happens, or at least make sure it never happens again.
This is not work that can only be performed by experts. Even a blue screen can be helpful, since Windows uses it to deliver a Bug Check Code, which gives some hint about the cause of the problem.

Thus, the message KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED indicates a problem with a driver. Microsoft provides a complete list of all check codes — and possible solutions — online. Such tips are necessary; otherwise any effort to fix a computer can quickly turn into a waste of time.

“Unfortunately, the diagnosis is anything but easy,” says Hans Ludwig Stahl, director of the Institute for Computer Science at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Problems can stem from issues with either hardware or software. Or the PC could be having resource issues related to working memory or hard drive space.

Viruses and other forms of malware can also make the computer unusable, which is why everyone should have up-to-date anti-virus software.

Stahl recommends seeking the source of the problem in the recent past. “Maybe the problem cropped up right after putting in a new piece of hardware or installation of some new software.” If that’s the case, remove the potential source of the problem as a test. Maybe the computer will work fine without it.

Sometimes combinations of hardware, software and operating system simply don’t work, says Stahl. “That can always happen with open systems like Windows.”

In a worst case scenario, that can mean living without the problem hardware or software. Sometimes a patch or a new driver from the Web site of a manufacturer can help. Or maybe the computer just wasn’t prepared properly for the new hardware. For example, new working memory will only function with the right settings for BIOS, the foundation of the PC’s firmware.

In such a case, beginners should leave any major changes to experts.

Source:http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Learn-from-Computer-Crashes–Delays/story.xhtml?story_id=033003ONXY30

It’s been over six months since we last reported about FXI’s Cotton Candy “computer on a USB stick” and although the hardware remains mostly the same, the company has spruced up the product design in time for the launch. The company is in fact shipping its first pre-order units as of now and if you placed an order for a Cotton Candy, then you’ll be glad to know that the final units are shipping With Android 4.0.
NEWS

It’s been over six months since we last reported about FXI’s Cotton Candy “computer on a USB stick” and although the hardware remains mostly the same, the company has spruced up the product design in time for the launch. The company is in fact shipping its first pre-order units as of now and if you placed an order for a Cotton Candy, then you’ll be glad to know that the final units are shipping With Android 4.0.

The biggest change is the actual design of the device itself which is now made out of white plastic. At the rear the microSD card slot has been joined by a micro USB port which should make it easier to add thinks like a wired keyboard and mouse, although a USB hub would still be required. The internals remain the same as far as we’re aware, namely a dual core Cortex-A9 ARM SoC with ARM Mali-400MP graphics, 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

FXI almost ready to ship the Cotton Candy computer on a USB stick

In one end of the device is an HDMI port which allows the Cotton Candy to be attached directly to a display, be it a computer screen or a TV and in the other end is a USB port which allows it to be plugged into a computer and acting as a separate system while being able to take advantage of the keyboard and mouse/touchpad. By default it’ll ship with Android 4.0 as mentioned above, but a copy of Ubuntu Linux will also be an option.

It’s not all good news though, as apparently FXI has no intention of accepting any further orders and the current lot are simply sold as development devices. The company is looking for a partner to work with to try and sell the devices into retail. As far as the pre-orders are concerned, FXI has started to contact those that pre-ordered from Scandinavia first with Europe being second on the list and the rest of the world potentially not getting their units until later in the summer.

FXI almost ready to ship the Cotton Candy computer on a USB stick

The Cotton Candy is an interesting device, but we’re not sure if there’s a big enough market for it outside of the developer/hobby community. It has some appeal, but as to why you’d want to bring it with you over a notebook on your business trip is beyond us, as you couldn’t use it in the airport for one and not all hotels allow you to plug in HDMI devices to their TV’s and you’d still have to carry a keyboard and a mouse with you. It’s possible we’re missing the point here, but as a smart TV upgrade for a “dumb” TV, it might not be such a bad fit, as long as it handles most media formats, which it ought to.

Source:http://vr-zone.com/articles/fxi-almost-ready-to-ship-the-cotton-candy-computer-on-a-usb-stick/15881.html